1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a support foot for a battery pack, a battery pack with the support foot and a method for manufacturing the battery pack; and more particularly, to a support foot for a battery pack, a battery pack with the support foot and a method for manufacturing the battery to enable the support foot to be strongly attached to the battery pack.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, as compact and lightweight portable wireless devices such as video cameras, cellular phones and notebooks are actively being developed, a lot of research on secondary batteries used as a driving power source has progressed. Such secondary batteries include a nickel-cadmium (Ni—Cd) battery, a nickel-hydrogen (Ni-MH) battery and a lithium (Li) battery. Among these batteries, the Li secondary battery is widely used in high-tech electronic devices because the Li secondary battery is rechargeable, can be formed either in a small size or in a large size, and has high operating voltage and high energy density per unit weight.
The Li battery is constructed with a bare cell, which has an electrode assembly including a positive electrode plate, a negative electrode plate and a separator, a can containing the electrode assembly and a cap assembly sealing a top opening of the can, and safety devices such as a positive temperature coefficient (PTC) element, a thermal fuse and a protection circuit module. Then, a battery pack is formed by being put into a separate external case, or filling a gap with hot-melt resin and then tubing and labeling the resulting a thin external material.
Generally, the battery packs are mass-produced in a hard pack type in which the battery pack is built in a hard case, for example, a current battery for a cellular phone, and in an inner pack type (generally called in the art) used to be directly put on a terminal of an electronic or electrical device by a user. Here, the inner pack type needs a separate external case covering the battery pack to protect the battery pack.
Here, as described above, on one side of a hard case of an hard pack type or an external case of an inner pack type, a support foot (generally known as a rubber foot in the art) is set, thereby protecting the battery pack from external impact, or preventing slipping of a terminal in which the battery pack is disposed.
A contemporary battery pack having a support foot is typically constructed with a bare cell, and a case containing the bare cell. A support foot accommodating part in which the support foot is placed is formed at one side of the case.
Also, the support foot is typically constructed with a support part and a double-sided tape. Here, the support part is made from rubber materials to protect the battery pack from external impact, and prevent slipping of a terminal in which the battery pack is disposed.
In the contemporary battery pack including the contemporary support foot, one side of the double-sided tape is adhered to a top surface of the support part, and the other side of the double-sided tape is adhered to the support foot accommodating part, and thus the support foot is adhered to the support foot accommodating part.
In the contemporary battery pack including the contemporary support foot, however, the support foot is adhered to the support foot accommodating part by only the double-sided tape, so that the support foot may be detached from the accommodating part because the adhesion of the double-sided tape is decreased with the passage of time or with a strong external force applied to the support foot.